WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
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◈ A Gacha Addict's Life in Fusionpunk ◈
Chapter 3: I Became the Wastrel of a Count's House (3)
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1.
What Arbel took out was a sheet of expensive paper with gold-trimmed edges.
At the top were the words, “Crowley Academy Admission Form.”
At the bottom was the name “Cedric Montraven.”
“Instead of disgracing the family by hanging around gambling dens, get out and go here. Don't even show your face in front of me.”
I had a vague idea what Crowley Academy was.
Early in my possession, I had looked into the setting in case this was a work I knew.
I ultimately concluded it was a world I had never seen before, but Crowley Academy itself had a fairly standard premise.
A place of learning where noble children and talented commoners gathered to develop their abilities.
Supposedly, it was the finest educational institution in Ark City, nurturing Aden's future.
“...”
My eyes were fixed not on Arbel or the admission form, but on the choices floating in midair.
[ 1. Go to the academy obediently ]
[ 2. Refuse admission and kiss Arbel ]
Judging by the others' reactions, it seemed like a status window only I could see.
But it was only two lines.
It lacked far too much flair to be a status window.
What the hell was this?
Why had it appeared?
The last time I saw choices like these was right before I jumped to my death.
Back then, I selected [ 2. Jump into that square box over there ], and possessed Cedric of Eden.
I could infer one thing.
‘If I choose an option and act on it, a particular outcome will follow.’
“What are you doing?”
“Thinking for a moment.”
“Thinking? If you were the kind of person who actually thought, would you be living in this miserable state?”
It was so correct that I gave up on arguing.
Instead, I examined the two choices.
This might be a world I didn't recognize, but it still followed genre conventions.
Usually, an either-or choice like this created a branching point.
It wasn't a true-or-false quiz. It felt like choosing the left or right path at a crossroads.
From that perspective, option one, ‘Go to the academy obediently,’ was easy enough to understand.
Cedric, the worthless scoundrel of a fallen count's house, enrolled at an academy.
The end.
Something would happen once he got there.
“This is the bare minimum the family expects of you. Do something with your life. Understand? Do you?”
Arbel said this while contemptuously poking my forehead with a fingertip.
She looked like she was straining on tiptoe, so I bent my knees slightly.
“Don't live like trash... Ngh!”
Maybe she took her younger brother's joke seriously. Arbel's face twisted, and she glared at me like she wanted to kill me.
Anyway, option one did not appeal to me much.
Because...
It looked boring.
It wasn't bad, but it felt like a bland plate of seasoned greens.
Crowley Academy was where Aden's most talented people gathered.
If a mediocre man like Cedric attended without connections, he was guaranteed to be an inferior student.
I was already making easy money by visiting the casino every day, and my bankroll had grown nicely. Why bother going to the academy just to become an inferior student?
On the other hand, option two, ‘Refuse admission and kiss Arbel.’
Now that was fun already.
It looked like low-grade harassment, but this could not be some punishment game forcing an absurd act on me.
Why?
Let's revisit those genre conventions.
Choices meant branching points.
Those choices did not usually appear without reason.
Right?
[ 1. Go to the academy ] and [ 2. Do not go to the academy ] would have been neat, symmetrical, and conventional.
But option two had the unnecessary addition, ‘kiss Arbel.’
Would that clause have been added without any basis or context?
No way.
It was a clue, a hint attached because it was a valid option.
“Ha. That figures.”
Arbel, you were an idealist too.
There was a reason she had charged at me like a Chihuahua whenever we met.
A sincere feeling of ‘I love my little brother so much!’ clashed with the moral judgment that she should not.
Her code had gotten tangled, and she had become vicious because she didn't know what to do.
At that moment, I realized Arbel's gaze, as though she were looking at a bug, was desperate mimicry meant to preserve the family line.
What a cute little thing.
I selected the choice without hesitation.
Number two.
The academy? Not going.
“Albert, could you leave us for a moment? I need to talk to my sister.”
“...Why must I leave?”
“This is a serious conversation.”
Once I sent the displeased Albert out, Arbel tilted her head in puzzlement.
“I'm not going to the academy. I like being home.”
“You... are you in your right mind?”
The corners of Arbel's eyes rose sharply, as if her patience had reached its limit.
She was no mere nobody. She was a real mage.
If Arbel casually flicked even one finger, Cedric's fragile bones would go crunch, crunch and shatter.
But...
“You won't be at the academy.”
“...What?”
Instead, I took a step forward.
“If I go there, I can't be with you.”
“Y-you...?”
Arbel trailed off, raising her eyes as if she could not believe it.
I did not miss the ripples of agitation spreading across her golden eyes.
“Could you close your eyes for a moment?”
“You don't know your place, and now you're ordering me around? You? Ordering me?”
“It's not an order. It's a request.”
“Answer me properly. Stop trying to change the subject with pointless nonsense.”
Arbel began speaking faster.
She was really good at acting.
That was probably why I had not noticed until now.
“There's something I want to give you.”
“Then just give it to me... Ha, fine. Do whatever you want.”
Arbel sighed as though she did not want to talk to me anymore.
Her long, thick eyelashes, like butterfly antennae, lowered demurely.
I kissed Arbel.
“...Mmph!!!”
Our lips met, soft and moist.
“Mm...?!”
Her eyes flew open in shock.
“Mm...! Mm...?!”
She'd been drinking wine since morning.
Her saliva carried the fresh aftertaste of grapes, and her awkwardly stiff tongue tangled hotly with mine.
“Mm...! Mm...!”
It was much more stimulating than I expected.
The way the overbearing Arbel creaked like she had broken down was cute too.
Arbel's personality had problems, but her beauty was devilish.
I told you she was the heroine!
Honestly, I had wanted to confess for a while!
“Pah...!”
When the long kiss ended, Arbel's face was filled with shock.
“Y-you... you... you... you...”
Her face, pale enough to seem sickly, burned red. Her ears were so red that touching them looked like it would give me a burn.
“What... what are you doing...?”
“I'm confessing.”
“C-confessing...?”
“Yeah, yeah. I feel the same way you do.”
I had only planned to confess this much, but I could not hold back after seeing Arbel's reaction.
It couldn't be helped.
It was common sense that a younger brother had a duty to lead his inexperienced older sister.
The moment I tried to kiss her again.
“...Stop.”
“Why?”
“I said stop...”
A weak voice, as if squeezed out, escaped her.
I was not some beast ruled by lust, so I pulled my hand back for now.
“...Is that your answer?”
A chilling silence suddenly ran down my spine.
The glass windows surrounding the drawing room trembled, and their frames creaked.
It was like a poltergeist phenomenon.
I had never seen it before, but I knew what it was the moment I did.
A response of overwhelming magical power, so strong that the mana circuits in my body, which were barely active, ached.
“Do you think this is funny?”
Arbel had lowered her head.
Rabbit ears stood sharply through her blond hair.
They were cute, but those rabbit ears were not a headband or cosplay.
They were the characteristic of a mage who inherited the Moon Rabbit Tale.
A warning sign that appeared when she used that magic.
Arbel's golden eyes burned with absolute disgust and contempt.
“...Um, Sister?”
Could we start making up now?
Cold sweat ran down my back.
It felt like looking at a grenade rolling around at my feet with its safety pin removed.
No, fuck. This status window was a total scam?
Didn't we have an agreement?
Wasn't Arbel supposed to blush here and say demurely, ‘I-I actually like Cedric-kun too...’?
Then.
Poof!
Arbel's rabbit ears returned to normal.
The mana that had weighed down on me like deep-sea pressure also dispersed.
“Stop the clumsy act. I understand enough.”
“Act?”
What was she talking about now?
“I was an idiot for thinking I could trust you one more time.”
Arbel straightened her clothes and turned her back on me coldly.
“Get out and go to the academy. If I see you tomorrow, I'll really kill you.”
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::: Challenges (NEW!) :::
- Kiss a female mage. +1 pt
- Kiss your older sister. +10 pt
======
2.
“Yaaawn...”
I rolled around on my bed with a bottle of liquor and yawned lazily.
Outside the window, sheep-like clouds drifted idly above the Wall of Humanity, which towered high on the distant horizon.
I still could not get used to that sight.
From what I had seen while living here, Ark City's level of development was, at best, around late Victorian England.
Yet there was a massive wall hundreds of meters tall, and so wide that locomotives ran along its top.
Well, magic existed, and so did monsters, so plenty of things were different.
Anyway.
“Life is good.”
To get to the point, I was alive.
My bones were not broken, Arbel had not killed me, and I had even learned a lesson.
“Never mouth off to a mage again.”
I knew mages stood at the very top of Aden and wielded absolute power.
But seeing a mage in person...
They were more than monsters wearing human skin.
Once, in a Myanmar junket room, I got into an altercation with a gang and had a gun aimed between my eyebrows. Standing before Arbel's fury felt the same.
I had been lucky enough to receive a second life, but I had no interest in dying a pointless death.
“Does this mean I should take the academy route...?”
It was burdensome to stay beside Arbel after riling her up once.
But I had already chosen the option to refuse admission.
What would happen if I made a different choice from the one I selected?
For now, I should give up on Arbel...
“...No.”
Despite my troubled thoughts, the innocent and flustered reactions Arbel had shown before flying into a rage lingered in my mind.
According to the big data, those reactions were far from rejection.
“Is it really right to give up already?”
Climb an impossible tower.
Make that Arbel from just now say, “Cedric, I like you! I like you!”
Wouldn't that be exciting too?
My gambler's instincts stirred for the first time in a while.
Then.
“Hmm?”
Night fell over my messy room.
It was not a metaphor.
I had not dozed off, either.
In less than three seconds, everything suddenly went dark, and a bright moon rose in the sky that had been filled with smoke.
“What is this?”
It was nine in the morning.
Did this place have a polar-night phenomenon or something?
I held the bottle to my mouth and watched the strange occurrence for a while.
Bang!
“Young master!”
The old butler Albert burst through the door as though breaking it down.
I could read grim determination on Albert's wrinkled face.
“What is it? Could you knock from now on?”
“We are under attack.”
“An attack? Out of nowhere?”
“There is no time to relax. Lady Arbel is buying us time. You must escape, at least, young master. I must join her.”
Albert spoke passionately, spraying spittle.
Ah, I got it immediately.
This was that old trick.
The circumcision trick.
Like the day we went out for pork cutlets.
“Ha, I'm not falling for it, old man. I'm not going to the academy.”
If I followed obediently, I would probably be tied up and placed on a train to Crowley Academy.
That was clearly where this was going.
“Young master, this is no time for jokes. The head of the house has been slain by an intruder.”
“...My father?”
Albert pressed his lips together with a mournful expression.
“...”
That was some vicious acting.
It was an act I had no choice but to fall for, even knowing it was an act. If I did not get serious, I would be an unfilial son.
To me, he was just an unfamiliar man I had barely spoken to, but Cedric had called him Father.
“Hurry. We have little time.”
Albert gripped my wrist tightly and led me to a room I had never entered in all my time in this mansion.
At the center of the dusty room stood an opaque full-length mirror.
“Did we have something like this in the house?”
“It is a magical device connected to a safehouse.”
When Albert did something to it, a twisted vortex appeared in the middle of the mirror.
This was really ominous.
Was he going to warp me somewhere just to get rid of the family's garbage?
I hurriedly said, “Albert, there is something I haven't told you. I won 230 million Bios at the casino. So let's talk this out, okay?”
Without seeming to hear me, Albert gripped my shoulders firmly, as though seeking a promise.
No matter how hard I struggled, I could not move.
“Young master, remember this. Once you reach that place, you must never let anyone discover your identity.”
“No, I really won the money! The deposit certificate is in my room!”
“To save you, the young master who carries the head of the house's blood, is how I hope to atone for this disloyalty.”
“Please listen to me!”
“I will come for you in three days! If you hear nothing from me by then, please... take care of yourself.”
Albert threw me into the mirror.
An indescribable dizziness. My vision turned upside down. It felt as if my body had become toilet paper being flushed down a toilet.
“Urrgh!!”
After my stomach turned like I had ridden a roller coaster three times in a row, I finally stopped dry-heaving and slowly looked around.
“This is...”
It was about as wide as a cramped goshiwon room.
The filthy wooden floor made a splintering sound with every step, and the bed was nothing but rags laid over a crude wooden box.
The rotten curtains by the window gave the place the gloomy atmosphere of a brothel in some desperately poor country.
Still, it was fortunate that there did not seem to be any rats.
It was so cold that even rats would freeze to death. My breath steamed inside the room.
“Fuck... Did I warp to another world again?”
You called this a safehouse! A safehouse!
How was this miserable dump the safehouse of a count's house?
One month after becoming the worthless scoundrel of a count's house.
I had been abandoned.
It was winter.
Footnotes:
The pork-cutlet line refers to a common Korean joke in which a boy is lured to circumcision with the promise of a meal.
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